On November 29, 2016, EPA announced the first 10 chemicals it will evaluate for potential risks to human health and the environment under the new Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Reform Act, which was signed into law back in June. The TSCA Reform Act required EPA to publish this list of priority chemicals and begin the risk evaluation process on these chemicals by December 19, 2016. By the end of 2019, EPA will be required to have at least 20 chemical risk evaluations in process at any given time.

The first 10 chemicals to be evaluated by EPA are:

1,4-Dioxane

1-Bromopropane

Asbestos

Carbon Tetrachloride

Cyclic Aliphatic Bromide Cluster

Methylene Chloride

N-methylpyrrolidone

Pigment Violet 29

Tetrachloroethylene, also known as perchloroethylene

Trichloroethylene

This list will be published in the Federal Register in the coming weeks, at which point it will trigger several statutory deadlines for these 10 chemicals:

EPA must release a scoping document for each chemical within 6 months.

EPA must complete risk evaluations for each chemical within three years.

If the risk evaluation determines that a chemical presents an unreasonable risk to humans and the environment, EPA must mitigate that risk within two years.

More information on the TSCA Reform Act and EPA’s recent actions can be found on EPA’s website.